tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8672807322454419912.comments2016-12-21T08:46:51.322-08:00The Testing NerdetteAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12246463275833595855noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8672807322454419912.post-50390863475350514902016-12-21T08:46:51.322-08:002016-12-21T08:46:51.322-08:00Hi,
I've been helping with a CoP for testing w...Hi,<br />I've been helping with a CoP for testing where I work, and can understand much of the pain you are going through.<br /><br />We have 1 hour set aside every 2 weeks, where the organizer spent the first three sessions establishing the expectations and rules, such as no such thing as a stupid question, no phones, be honest, and so forth.<br />After that I began assisting in facilitating and then presenting our sessions, bringing our "core" membership to 2.<br />We started on a high, and generally get about 50% of our testing team attending, although the majority are our in-sourced staff from India, whilst the permanent staff don't seem as keen on their own development.<br /><br />We use Confluence for our internal discussions, and have been asking the community to propose ideas. One thing that went well (though has been hard to maintain momentum on) was when we created working groups of what people either want to learn, or know well enough to teach others.<br />We got the room to start naming business areas, methodologies, technologies and anything else they could think of. Then everyone put their name on a PostIt and put their name against it.<br />Something like that might help with deciding future topics as well as the champions. If you have a bunch of people who want to learn to use Java and Selenium, they are all aware of each other and can start making it happen.<br /><br />Nice to hear of a testing CoP going well :)<br /><br />P.S Already seen Rogue One, and enjoyed seeing more of the Empire as they are what I enjoy the most in Star Wars ;)Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18252663016715844624noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8672807322454419912.post-61920968181826990412016-11-04T14:59:23.557-07:002016-11-04T14:59:23.557-07:00I forgot to say, when I say dropped focus, I mean ...I forgot to say, when I say dropped focus, I mean it become not important, not that it wasn't happening at all. Automation just became the priority and manual testing dropped back to it's honestly bug monkey days. Click button, button works, automate. Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12246463275833595855noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8672807322454419912.post-85365228442486700242016-11-04T14:47:58.887-07:002016-11-04T14:47:58.887-07:00Working out what to automate is only sort of manua...Working out what to automate is only sort of manual testing. By that I mean, yes you work out your given when thens, you go through the CSS pulling out element locators etc. But it involves none of the other things that manual testing should, like proper exloratory testing, UX, or even testing the documents early on. Automation, since we were all so new to it, took up all our time, at the expense of all the other things you would normally do. Now we've hit a balance between specialist at either end and generalist who sit in the middle and do both :) Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12246463275833595855noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8672807322454419912.post-55676768201027472782016-11-04T14:41:47.050-07:002016-11-04T14:41:47.050-07:00Automation is definitely part of the future, but i...Automation is definitely part of the future, but it's important not to forget that automation and manual testing are different things. Automation let's you move super quickly, but manual specialists in things such as UX or exloratory testing shouldn't be forgotten. Or you'll end up with quickly released software that no one wants to use :pAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12246463275833595855noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8672807322454419912.post-81271463205248438242016-11-04T14:39:05.401-07:002016-11-04T14:39:05.401-07:00Yes! I love being able to do both. Being a general...Yes! I love being able to do both. Being a generalist can be a lot of fun, it gives you a huge amount tools and tricks to draw from. Specialist are important too, but I love sitting in the middle between manual and automation :)Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12246463275833595855noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8672807322454419912.post-22926793387823330712016-11-04T13:33:39.068-07:002016-11-04T13:33:39.068-07:00Hi Helena. I'm curious about one thing that yo...Hi Helena. I'm curious about one thing that you mentioned: You dropped all focus on manual testing when doing automation. If this is the case, how did you work out what to automate? I mean, in deciding what and how you automate something, you have to test it first then you automate it. This is what i instill in my team.yorkshireflatcaphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07057181720839956088noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8672807322454419912.post-65777748749375028582016-11-04T11:49:36.012-07:002016-11-04T11:49:36.012-07:00I agree with Toine. Nicely put Helena. I've pr...I agree with Toine. Nicely put Helena. I've prided myself on being a tester without a developer background, but I feel that is going to have to change as more and more places are requiring automation experience.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13357160172534929226noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8672807322454419912.post-22196064800826893372016-11-04T10:44:23.377-07:002016-11-04T10:44:23.377-07:00Great read Helena, thank you. This is from a funct...Great read Helena, thank you. This is from a functional tester who is moving into the code and more technical aspects of testing. For me, combining both is how I want to approach the job. Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02717293287657923637noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8672807322454419912.post-72096192144176238622016-10-27T04:49:06.025-07:002016-10-27T04:49:06.025-07:00I am looking forward to the next chapter: "En...I am looking forward to the next chapter: "Enter the Team Lead!"<br /><br />-T.J. Maher<br /> http://www.tjmaher.com/T.J. Maherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04400187344378497865noreply@blogger.com